Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked

side of the world. Again.
    Dozens of competitors from the Lore gazed breathlessly out at the sea. Sebastian followed their attention, and spied a churning in a darker ring of water. Shark fins sliced through the water, then slipped back down.
    Something was dying out there, and no one bothered to lend a—
    A hand shot through the surface.
    His stomach clenched. Kaderin.
    An instant trace. Under the murky water with her. Impossible to see. Blood—hers—and tissue, pieces of shark thick in the water. He struck out, fighting past the coil of sharks to reach for her shoulders.
    Missed her. One had her leg, twisting her from Sebastian’s grasp, yanking down in a frenzy.
    Sebastian fought with all the strength he had. He hit and connected, slicing his hands on teeth, ignoring his own wounds, clearing a way to her.
    His hand closed in a fist over her upper arm...
    Fucking got her.
    He traced back to the beach, tumbling to the ground, twisting her atop him so he didn’t crush her.
    She wasn’t breathing. He jerked up, flipping her to her side. She coughed, choking up water. He rubbed her back as she spit into the sand. When she’d caught her breath, he took her in his arms, rocking with her.
    What if I didn’t wake when I did?
    She’d be... dead. He shuddered. They couldn’t be parted again.
    Even if he had to lock her away.
    When he gently held her by the shoulders so he could see her eyes, she muttered, “You look white as a ghost.”
    “You were seconds away from being eaten alive!” he roared, his gut-wrenching fear for her turning to fury in an instant. “Or drowning.”
    “I did drown.” She frowned dazedly. “Twice, I think.”
    “This displeases me. What if I hadn’t gotten here in time? What if I hadn’t been around to save your life?”
    “Don’t you get it?” she snapped. “For more than a millennium, I have won this contest handily. Then you come along, forcing me to alter my strategy.” She sucked in a breath to continue. “And to take risks that I wouldn’t have had to before. I wouldn’t have been moved to this desperate an act if I hadn’t given up the box.”
    “I didn’t want you to give it up.”
    She eyed him. “Yes, Sebastian. You did.”
    “Not if this was the alternative.” His voice was hoarse. “Do you know what it was like seeing you in the middle of that? To watch you going down before I could even react? I was watching you... die.” He smoothed back wet, sandy hair from her cheek. “What will make you desist from this?”
    “Nothing,” she said, her expression obstinate. “Nothing on this earth will prevent me from winning the prize.”
    “Maybe your death would.”
    “It’s been a long time coming.”
    In a seething voice, he said, “Bride, you have a bit of shark on your chin.”
    She wiped it off with the back of her arm, her mien defiant.
    “You bit them?”
    “They bit me first! And I didn’t have much of a choice.”
    “You saw there were sharks, and you didn’t think to wait for me?”
    “When you haven’t called? Wanna know the third major turnoff? Men who don’t call after hitting it.”
    Hitting it?
    Her ire was clearly building. “I wasn’t going to wait for you when you’ve been a no-show for two days. Last time we really talked, I recall you informing me that you were going to forsake me. The first vampire to renounce his Bride. Blah, bluh, blah.”
    “You must have known that I would come for you—Wait, you said two days?”
    “Like I care, Sebastian, if you lost track of time—”
    “I was in a jungle, slowly burning to death. Or I’d have been here.”
    “Wh-what did you say?”
    “I traced there to help you that morning. But the Scot slammed a shovel across my face, then tossed me in the river.” He narrowed his eyes. “Did he hurt you?”
    “No. But he did seem to make a decision about me.”
    “I thought I’d only been out for a day. You’ve been out here for two days without me?” He squeezed her hands.
    “Ow!”
    He peered down in horror to see he’d hurt her hands worse. They met eyes before they both lowered their gazes to her legs. Her pants were sliced through, her skin bitten and bloodied. She was injured worse than he’d ever seen. The sand around her was dark. It was blood... everywhere.
    “My God, why didn’t you say something?” he roared, furious again.
    “Oh, pardon me for bleeding,” she muttered when she saw his eyes glued to her legs. “Don’t want to whet your appetite.”
    “You